The Punic Wars
by TheAppleFreak
Summary: After the final battle against XANA, Franz Hopper was able to survive by creating a copy of himself on a hard drive. But when he brings XANA with him, the world is thrown under his rule... again. Reuploaded because I couldn't figure out how to work this.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Silence.

It surrounded me; it was all I knew.

The silence which compassed me did not relent, even for the tiniest microsecond. Never before had I ever been so entranced by the all-knowing silence which now made up my entire life and being.

Well, except for one other thing.

I knew that my dummy would not work. I knew he would catch on after a couple of blasts, but the time I gained from it would be imperative for my ultimate survival.

While they were fussing over their difficulties and the resistance, I sent out a databurst; one that contained everything I had: my life's work, my memories, everything. I still could feel every blast recieved, but it was distant.

The port opened, just for a microsecond, but it was much more time than I needed. I slipped past the guards, who were preoccupied with... something. I could tell you, but then this story would go from being a PG-rated one to an R-rated movie.

I searched the area as quickly as I could, finding the one node I could plug into until the entire ordeal could end. I desperately looked around, finding nothing but empty space and open tunnels that were as obvious as life itself. I continued my desperate search until I found the perfect getaway, a closing tunnel. It looked expansious, big enough for everything I had with me. I still felt the blows, but they were becoming fainter with my distance.

As I began to proceed to the port, however, I heard the most horrible of noises. Although, now, even that sound might even be welcome. It was a sound not even comparable to one thousand fingernails scraping on a blackboard, or of a hideous train crash, or even worse (call me insane, but I had never liked the sound or feeling of it), nylon rubbing against nylon. I turned around, and right behind me, there was a plume of black smoke; a personification of evil itself. Panic overrode all other instincts, and instead of keeping a low profile, I shot away towards the tunnel with all of the speed I could muster, drawing a lot of attention to myself. The gate was one hundred; no, ninety; eighty meters away. I slowed down ever so slightly, turned around, and saw what I dreaded with every fiber of my being.

He had spotted me.

I dashed to the port with all possible speed, trying to outrun the monster that was chasing me. I needed not slow down again, as the cacophony behind me was growing louder as we raced to the tunnel. The entrance began to close; time was running out. I continued to go as fast as I possibly could, pushing the limits of myself. Fifteen, ten, five meters away. The noise was growing louder, the gate was almost fully closed, but I wasn't stopping now. Four meters, three, two, one....

Silence. The world deafened, the noise muted, and all life ceased to make sounds. Life became a black void...

-o-o-o-

"Mommy, your computer says that you can now take the thingy out now!"

"All right, Bridgett, take the hard drive out. I don't need it anymore," the mother replied. But little did she know what was there...

-o-o-o-

Time stopped for me. I couldn't tell how much time had passed, but the silence and darkness had become commonplace to me. There was very little I could do, but my luck was beginning to change. The tunnel began to reopen, in a different part of the world I was used to, and I went outside for the first time in ages.

It was almost like waking up after a long sleep, and shaking off the tiredness that encompassed you. There was absolutely nothing here. I couldn't believe it.

I continued on to examine everything that was around me, from the structures that seemed to grow out of the sky, to the bumps and structures that seemed to grow out of the ground. And although nothing was similar to my memories, there was one key difference to the world I had known: he was gone.

He was gone.

_They had actually done it!_, I thought.

As I silently rejoiced, a very, very faint sound greeted (or cursed, you be the judge), my ears: a grinding noise. A low, grating noise, similar to a subway car stopping. All happiness instantly disappeared.

XANA had, in fact, survived.

In case you hadn't been following me, I had escaped Lyoko after the last battle. I stowed away on a removable hard drive, with an unexpected visitor. And now, I had just cursed the world with a riddance that Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita had fought so hard to eliminate.

Who am I? How did I know about all of this? Why was XANA targeting me?

For all of those questions, there is a single answer that suffices for all of them. It's a very simple five-word answer, but no other explanation could describe each question in detail like this could.

My name is Franz Hopper.

I released XANA onto this world twice.

And thus, I started the Punic Wars, once again.


	2. Recovery

_**The Punic Wars**_

_**The First War**_

It was a quiet morning on Kadic Campus, the sun not having yet broken through the night to bring the onset of dawn. The soda machines at the shack were silent, as the custodians had not yet turned on the circuit breakers giving life to them. The birds were not yet chirping, though far away, an owl could be heard, breaking the monotony of the night. A fire truck raced by the school, sirens blaring, but following suit to everything else, it eventually faded away into the quiet sounds of the city. In this silence, the lives of approximately 1,500 students began again.

_Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! Bleep!_ The soundless morning became loud with alarm clocks blaring in approximately 120 rooms, signaling the start of a new day for its inhabitants. One such inhabitant raised his hand groggily from his bed and fumbled around for the clock. His hand hit wood, more wood, his math homework, some scrap paper, and eventually, his alarm clock as he searched for the infernal device. However, his searching forced the clock to fly off of the table onto the floor. Although he succeeded in his goal of hitting the snooze button, the sound of it hitting the floor got him up.

"_Oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no!_" he thought as his mind raced back a few weeks. Aelita had given it to him as a gift for her second anniversary after she had been freed from the hands of the demon XANA, and if she found it broken… a XANA attack might actually been preferable.

He quickly got out of bed. His tall frame and somewhat muscular tone were apparent, even with his clothing on. His long hands inspected the damage, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered there was no superficial damage to the device. He placed it back on his bedside table and sat down at his computer. The ancient rust-bucket fired up as he turned on each of his three monitors, making sure the color calibration tools he had were properly set. He felt a pang of nostalgia when the default loading screen he had set more than 2 years ago displayed on his primary monitor. On it, it said in big, bold letters:

"Welcome to Carthage, Jeremy Belpois"

He smiled as he remembered all that had happened since that fateful evening on October 9th. Through his mind's eye, he remembered everything that had occurred since he had entered that factory: turning on the massive supercomputer, discovering Aelita, inviting the group…

Bringing Aelita to the real world, with her "virus," attempting to piece together the growing mystery of the Hermitage and Franz Hopper, the Marabounta, the decoding of Franz Hopper's diary, the missing fragment of Aelita's code…

Feeling their team being thrown apart due to the increasing pressure of more powerful XANA attacks, Yumi's parents, William discovering their secret, and XANA destroying the Core of Lyoko…

Piecing together the Core of Lyoko from the data burst sent out by Franz Hopper, reprogramming the gang's weaponry and costumes, fighting against the Xanafied William, christening the Skidbladnir, discovering the Replikas, and creating the multi-agent program that allowed them to destroy that demon from hell…

And then, there had been the matter of piecing together their shattered lives. Two years of playing the hero behind-the-scenes had taken a toll on both their health and their attitude. Nobody could figure out the mysterious reason why Aelita had been downright miserable, nor why Sissi had suddenly become much happier. Some had put one and one together, but their assumptions were disproved after they saw Sissi comforting Aelita. No one was expecting that.

Meanwhile, at the urging of Ulrich and Odd, Jeremy had been forced to join the football team. Their fun lasted only until Jim wheeled upon them, and recruited Odd for the gymnastics team and pulled Ulrich back onto the soccer team. To the ultimate shock of everyone, Jeremy proved to be a remarkable player; that is, if you count plan maker as a position. Even with the burden of guilt that they were carrying, letting Franz Hopper die at their hands, their moods lightened considerably as they were thrown into the limelight.

Yumi had decided to engage in a test relation with Ulrich, which he responded very positively to. To no one's surprise, the relation turned out to be successful, and the couple decided to go serious on it. William, understandably, was furious with Ulrich, and Sissi became enraged at Yumi. Their rage was so strong that they paired up to break apart the couple, and eventually developed feelings for each other. It didn't surprise many, but it undermined the threat to Yumi and Ulrich's relationship.

Odd continued to be the troubadour that he was during the reign of XANA, but eventually he settled with Emily. They made a cute couple, until Odd accidentally emailed her a picture of Samantha, which she reacted negatively to. It led to their eventual breakup (i.e., one day afterward), and Odd was depressed for several weeks afterwards. His mood was lifted when Sam unexpectedly moved to Boulogne-Billancourt and enrolled at Kadic. Odd immediately went to her for consolation, and after a makeup, they became one of the hottest couples on campus, asides from Mr. and Ms. Einstein, Ulrich and Yumi, and William and Sissi.

After the recouperation from the era of XANA, Odd found that all of the material that he had forgotten while battling evil had negative effects on his test grades. With the consent of the group, the Supercomputer was reactivated solely for the purpose of return trips. Every so often, a rumor circulates that a giant glowing sphere engulfs everything and sends it back to the past, but they were always disregarded as something that might have been found on some random corner of the Internet.

Unknown to them all, a bigger threat was lurking in the shadows of the Digital Sea, waiting to make its move…


End file.
